1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ceramic capacitor and a method for manufacturing the ceramic capacitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of a ceramic capacitor, a ceramic capacitor including a capacitor main body made of barium titanate or the like, first and second internal electrodes disposed within the capacitor main body, a first external electrode connected to the first internal electrode, and a second external electrode connected to the second internal electrode is known (e.g., refer to JP-A-2005-203213).
In general, as a method of increasing a capacitance of the ceramic capacitor, a method of increasing an area of an internal electrode, a method of using a dielectric material having a large dielectric constant, a method of reducing a thickness of a dielectric material, and a method of increasing the number of laminations of an internal electrode are known.
For example, when a capacitance of the ceramic capacitor is increased by increasing the number of laminations of the internal electrode, it is necessary to reduce a thickness of the internal electrode. A particle diameter of a metal powder contained in a conductive paste for forming the internal electrode needs to be reduced. However, when a size of the metal powder in the conductive paste is reduced, a melting point of the metal powder is lowered. As a result, a sintered temperature of a conductive paste for forming an internal electrode is decreased, and a difference in a rate of shrinkage between the internal electrodes and the dielectric material is increased when preparing a capacitor main body by sintering. Therefore, there is a problem in that the internal electrode is split into a plurality of portions or the internal electrode is not exposed to an end surface of the capacitor main body and a contacting property between the internal electrode and the external electrode is deteriorated when preparing a ceramic capacitor main body by sintering. Accordingly, there is a problem in that the reliability of the ceramic capacitor to be manufactured is deteriorated.